Columns

Beginning Jan. 1, 2014, U.S. citizens are required to have health insurance – with few exceptions. Key initiatives of the Affordable Care Act (i.e., healthcare reform) are fast approaching Oct. 1. These are new initiatives and there will be a lot of surrounding confusion.
As a key health provider in the Lancaster area, we want to provide education to our community members in an easy-to-understand way, as well as help them sign up for insurance through the Health Insurance Marketplaces, Medicaid and/or assistance with their premiums for medical coverage.

Week four of the 2013 Lancaster High School football season was a tough one, but this isn’t all about the game at Memorial Stadium where the Bruins dropped a 35-6 loss to Blythewood.
Sometimes it’s about more than the final score and the game. There’s also the game of life.

Lancaster native Brad Dunn had three main loves in life – God, his family and the South Carolina Gamecocks. And on Sunday, before a standing-room only crowd at Lexington United Methodist Church, all of them were there to celebrate his life.
William Bradford Dunn was born on Feb. 25, 1977, and faced adversity every day of his life. An inoperable deformity left his face different from most other children. Other physical complications were operable, however, and through the years Brad became a familiar face at area and regional hospitals.

For several weeks, I have been hearing about horrific traffic jams on U.S. 521 in the Van Wyck Road/Doby’s Bridge Road area between 6 and 7:15 a.m. on weekdays.
About 1,000 students are dropped off by car at Indian Land Elementary School each morning between 6 and 7:15 a.m. This is plenty of traffic to cause the reported jam, which apparently causes delays of 40 minutes or more for commuters using U.S. 521 to get to work in the morning.

The fact that South Carolina is ranked as one of the worst-run states in America should be of great concern to everyone. We were No. 43 on the survey of 50 states in 2012. This information was reported by 247wallst.com:
u Debt per capita: $3,419 – 25th highest
u Budget deficit: 26.1 percent – 11th largest
u Unemployment: 10 percent – tied in eighth place as highest
u Median household income: $42,367 – ninth lowest
u Percentage below poverty line: 18.9 percent – ninth highest

We all know that in the global economy of the 21st century, we in South Carolina are competing with Germany and Brazil just as much as we’re competing with North Carolina and Georgia.
The question is: how are we doing? And the answer is: not so great… at least when it comes to education.
When the subject of education comes up, it’s easy for politicians and policy makers to talk about things in generalities and rely on ideological rhetoric to try and make their point. Let’s try hard data for once.

While South Carolina elected officials were busy this past session indebting South Carolina taxpayers an additional $120 million for the benefit of a single – one already located in-state – North Carolina’s elected officials were busy making actual tax cuts across the board.

Editor’s note: Lancaster resident Randolph English and other members of the Both Sides Stop the Violence Committee wrote a letter to President Barack Obama urging that more be done to stop the homicides caused by gun violence. The letter, “Let’s put an end to violence,” published in the May 19 edition of The Lancaster News. Following is the response from President Obama.

The American Cancer Society’s Relay For Life is seeking volunteers in Lancaster – walkers, cancer survivors, caregivers, community leaders, anyone wanting to make a difference – to organize and recruit fundraising teams, garner community support, coordinate logistics, seek refreshments and prizes, plan entertainment and lend a hand to ensure the success of the 2014 event.